Category: Email bulletins to supporters

Three WIA Officers Resign and alert members of financial mismanagement and board dysfunction.

President openly defies board.

National news renamed Pravda.

Hello again,

As you read last week, WIA Director Andrew Smith has “gone public” to alert members to the scandalous state of affairs within the Board of the WIA. It is timely to remind members that this is the third board member of the WIA to issue public warnings to members in just 8 months.

Andrew states that “financial reporting is in disarray. On my estimation our Institute is losing over $1,000 a week.” He goes on to alert members that the “board is self-centred and not prepared to examine itself both under our constitution and more importantly the Corporations Act of Australia”.

Earlier this year (February), Treasurer Chris Chapman resigned advising members that “The Board has ignored my advice and, as such, I am unable to perform my responsibilities in the best interests of the Institute or its members.” Chris continues with warnings of “ethical and professional concerns about how our Institute and its finances are being managed”.

Late last year (December 2015) Director Rowan Dollar resigned citing “nepotism, bullying and blatant disregard for volunteers and members” and that “The board has shown continually a lack of engagement with members plus a lack of governance and transparency”.

Rowan reported that he “asked the director managing the office for a balance sheet and Profit & Loss statement for the WIA. I was fully entitled to do so in my capacity as a director. The President refused my request.”

Even the most sceptical reader must now accept that all is not well with our WIA. It is clear that this Board is completely dysfunctional and that oversight of our finances is in disarray.

Yet in spite of this, the WIA President Mr. Phil Wait continues to treat members with contempt. Board notes and minutes from July clearly indicate a board decision to release P&L Statement to members. Instead the President defies a Board decision and publishes his disingenuous “bucket economics” in an attempt to gloss over the truth.

Rather than actively promoting our hobby, the Board is complicit in its decline. Its financial behaviour is at best incompetent and at worst scandalous. It promotes censorship of news broadcast services. The following response was received from the Editor of the National News:

“Received your email from NewsWest for August 21.

Any WIA item for news I only accept from the WIA President / Board itself..

I am sure some of these concerns are (or have been) addressed since the
AGM.. but have forwarded it to WIA President Phil.”

It appears our amateur radio news services are the mouthpiece of the WIA President and Board.

We call on any Director who supports Andrew to join him in calling for change. We call on every WIA member who supports Andrew to send him an email showing your support.

We call on all amateur radio news broadcast services and the editor of Amateur Radio magazine to stand up against censorship and publish this public interest story. The only broadcast service that has stood up thus far to the culture of intimidation and bullying is the VK6 News team.

Our Institute and hobby are at risk. The Board is actively censoring this story and stymying free speech with its continued toxic culture.

We call on affiliated clubs to take action. The WIA is supposed to support the clubs and promote the hobby. Now is the time for all clubs to stand united and demand change.

Every member should be alarmed that our President is overseeing a board that is out-of-control and riven by internecine conflict. WIA Director Andrew Smith has confirmed the loses; over $1,000 per week.

Andrew will need the support of ALL WIA members now he has made his concerns public. Let the President, Phil Wait know that you support Andrew. Contact Mr Wait on 0418 161 733 or send him an email philwait@bigpond.net.au.

Positive action is being planned. But we need to ensure every member is made aware of the facts. Please forward this email to your local club and friends. Take a copy when you meet local amateurs for a coffee. If they contact Feedback@wiarg.org we can send them a newsletter direct.

We’ll continue to support Paul and Andrew to challenge this Board and demand better results for all Australian Radio Amateurs. A strong WIA is critical to protect our hobby. We encourage every radio amateur in Australia to be a member.

Until next week,

G.C. Dunstan VK4DU, C. Chapman VK3QB, R. Dollar VK8RD

Ps. We don’t want to spam you. Send us an email if you’d prefer we remove you from our mailing list.

ensure documented policies are in place and that all requests are handled consistently and fairly by the WIA (eg. Callsign requests, beacons, repeaters);

greatly improve Governance;

strengthen working groups (committees) to take a far greater role in the operation of the WIA;

ensure the board has a healthy and constructive culture – this requires significant change; and

encourage participation and growth in our hobby.

We hear from members every week, and it’s clear to us that Andrew and Paul are sticking to their election promises and attempting to achieve change at the WIA. We have no doubt that they are working exceptionally hard.

We do hope that, with their influence, the conflict, incompetence and arrogance which was the hallmark of the Board during the latter part of 2015 and into 2016 will change for the good of the membership and the hobby.

If you want to see positive change and you believe the above priorities are important, please show your support by doing these three things:

Contact Andrew and Paul to let them know they have your support.

Phone the President, Phil Wait on 0418 161 733 and send him an email philwait@bigpond.net.au asking that he support Andrew and Paul.

Visit our web site wiarg.org – and drop us an email asking to be put on our email list for weekly updates.

We will continue lobbying for change. We will continue to support Paul and Andrew.

We call for your backing to strengthen their position.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Every week we get emails of support and we’ll continue to call this Board to account as well as making positive, consultative contributions to the future of the hobby. However, there are still many people who are unaware of the WIA Reform Group.

Forward this email to your local club and friends. Take a copy when you meet local amateurs for a coffee. If they contact Feedback@wiarg.org we can send them a newsletter direct.

Please continue to contact the National Office and Board Members and ask for your questions to be answered. Ask them to publish a budget for 2016 and issue monthly P&L statements. It only takes the push of a button in the MYOB package by the Treasurer. No effort or cost at all. Then we can all be informed. Is WIA going to make another loss in 2016?

As advised in our last newsletter, we have written to the Board asking that they follow through by addressing unanswered questions at the AGM. To date we have not even received acknowledgement of our letter, let alone any answers to the questions.

The President made a commitment to refer questions back to the Treasurer and we will keep asking until that commitment is honoured.

We don’t believe it needs to, however, data provided by ACMA shows an alarming trend. Our numbers are decreasing by about 50 per month (600 per year).

That’s a 4.3% decline in the 6 months to July 2016.

Given the ageing demographic of the amateur radio population, we believe all amateurs should be alarmed. If no proactive action is taken by all of us, this rate of decline is likely to accelerate. Even it is remains steady at 4.3% we’ll have fewer than 10,000 radio amateurs in Australia by 2024.

As The Wireless Institute of Australia appears to be doing very little to address this issue, we thought it would be in everyone’s interest if the WIA Reform Group developed a documented strategy to grow our hobby.

To assist us, and to ensure we capture every idea that has merit and substance, we invite all interested radio amateurs to submit ideas. We will consolidate the ideas most likely to succeed and publish a Strategy Document. We’ll ask the Editor of Amateur Radio Magazine to publish the document, and we’ll also provide it to the Board for their consideration.

Please get your submission to us by the end of July. Your document must include the following sections:

The Idea

A summary of your idea (no more than one paragraph)

A Brief

Provide as much detail as you would like about your idea

Target audience

To whom would your idea be targeted

Method to market the idea

How would you suggest your idea be marketed to yield the best result?

Support required

What logistical/technical/administrative support may be required to implement your idea?

Budget

If possible, provide some ideas of what your idea may cost to implement

We have a few ideas of our own, and we’ll get a final report together in August for release via the web, Amateur Radio Magazine and direct to the Board.

Every week we get emails of support and we’ll continue to call this Board to account as well as making positive, consultative contributions to the future of the hobby. However, there are still many people who are unaware of the WIA Reform Group.

Forward this email to your local club and friends. Take a copy when you meet local amateurs for a coffee. If they contact our feedback email we can send them a newsletter direct.

Please continue to contact the National Office and Board Members and ask for your questions to be answered. Ask them to publish a budget for 2016 and issue monthly P&L statements.

It only takes the push of a button in the MYOB package by the Treasurer. No effort or cost at all. Then we can all be informed. Is WIA going to make another loss in 2016?

We have been busy behind the scenes over the past few weeks. Since our last newsletter (23 May) we’ve been amazed with the responses to the “Your Licence Privileges” with almost 600 respondents. We’ll get a report out to you with our comments in the coming few weeks.

But, now to something far more pressing; a report from the AGM.

As reported prior to the AGM, this is what the WIA Directors achieved in 2015:

Income down almost $6,000

Expenses up a staggering $72,000

Cash in bank down almost $57,000

Reported Loss of $12,680

Membership down by 212 or 4.7%

$0 provided for club grants

If you have an hour to spare, watch the recording of the AGM.

Chris VK3QB attended the AGM on Norfolk Island and provides this summary:

About 55-60 members were in attendance. My single biggest observation that should alarm all members was the (nearly complete) apathy and disregard for the Board’s performance, the financial results and inability to answer reasonable questions with any competence.

It appeared that the bulk of those present were simply not interested; they were on Norfolk Island for a nice holiday and were clearly uncomfortable that questions were being asked of the Board.

There was a collective sigh of relief when one vocal member stood up and announced that he was a former accountant and auditor and that everything was ok. To paraphrase; “There was no need to worry and the board should be congratulated for their efforts”.

This well-orchestrated piece of grand-standing was met with applause and cheers. Clearly the bulk of those present wanted to hear a “good news story”.

This same gentleman advised after the meeting that the financial position of the WIA didn’t matter and that members didn’t really care.

I sincerely hope that his attitude does not reflect that of the bulk of members who were unable to attend the AGM. I don’t believe it reflects the attitude of the newly elected Board members.

Of particular note, the treasurer was not in attendance. The Acting Treasurer (Director Fred Swainston) opened his report by advising members that he was, quote “not an accountant and definitely would never want to be one, honestly” unquote.

One could only assume that Mr Swainston’s intention was to prepare members for an inability to answer financial questions adequately.

It should be noted that contracting firm Trainsafe (Director Fred Swainston) undertook a well-paid engagement to manage the WIA National Office and WIA finances from August 2015 to March 2016.

On the back of a reduction in cash of about $57,000 (that’s $1,096 cash out the door each and every week in 2015) I provide just a few examples of questions and answers from the AGM:

Q: Why are Awards costs up from $997 in 2015 to $5,517 in 2015?

A: The Acting Treasurer advised this was an error by the auditor

Q: What is the sum of $8,091 listed as Professional Expenses, and what services were provided?

A: These expenses relate to the third party transactions they should be technically allocated under Employment Expenses and that’s actually an oversight. (we can assume therefore Trainsafe).

(one wonders if this amount was also declared in the “Related Parties Transactions” – or if this is another “error”)

Q: Why are the ACMA revenue numbers markedly different in the report (`$66k) to what is calculated (~$57k) based on the data presented in the Directors Report?

A: The Chairman (Phil Wait) was unable to answer. The Acting Treasurer was unable to answer. The Chairman advised he would “Refer that to the treasure for his comments”.

These are just three examples of reasonable questions about the finances, and those are the answers provided by the Board; clearly members of the WIA deserve better.

The directors have a fiduciary duty to manage our finances and be able to answer reasonable questions. It is my opinion that they have failed that test.

The Financial Report was accepted, but certainly not unanimously. The secretary will have the final count, but I estimate there was about 48 votes to accept and 30 votes to reject.

Another very serious failure of good governance was witnessed when the Chairman refused a reasonable request to note on the meeting minutes that “even though the Financial Report has been accepted, it is acknowledged that there are errors and unanswered questions relating to material aspects of the WIAs business, that being the contract with the ACMA.”

The AGM then closed and the majority made a bee-line to the tea and cake they had been eyeing since staff started setting the tables 45 minutes earlier.

At this point I wish to thank those members who entrusted me with their proxies. I also applaud the nine members present who were prepared to challenge the appalling status-quo and vote against accepting the financial reports.

It was especially disappointing that so many members present at the AGM simply failed to take any serious interest in the financial stability and good management of their WIA.”

So many more questions could have been asked, but it was apparent that the Board and majority of members present were simply not interested in open, honest reporting. A few examples include:

The WIA has ~$57,000 less cash in the bank? Where has it gone? The WIA has reported a loss of only $12,680 and the President, Phil Wait attributed this to “exit payments of two WIA staff members in 2015”. Given the bulk of these exit payments would have been covered by balance sheet transfers, where did the ~$57,000 go?

Why is it that membership is down by 212 members, but membership income was up by $15,309? (simple maths… 212*$95 = $20,140). That’s a difference of over $35,000

Why do Bookshop, Foundation Licence Manuals and Callbook sales and costs just not add up? Review 2015 revenue and costs against those of 2014.

Please take the time to review the Financial Report. Whilst the AGM is behind us, every member should be demanding the Board illustrates it has control over finances this year, and they must be held accountable for last year.

A good start would be for the board to answer the questions openly and honestly, and then follow-up by publishing a budget and monthly P&L statements. It is the only way this Board can illustrate it is managing our money competently and responsibly.

Word about the WIA Reform Group continues to spread. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members and ask for all questions to be answered.

Ask them to publish a budget for 2016 and issue monthly P&L statements. It only takes the push of a button in the MYOB package. No effort or cost at all. The we can all be informed…..

We are now all paying for an accountant to look after the books, after all… how much, one wonders? Why isn’t any member willing to step forward and offer their services as Treasurer? Is there a reluctance to grasp the poisoned chalice, perhaps?

Email us if you have questions or concerns. Next week we’ll provide a summary of the Open Forum session from Norfolk Island, as well as some positive ideas for the future.

We continue to be concerned about the capability and professionalism of our Board.

We have received no response to our recent correspondence to the Board in relation to:

– Our request for the Annual Report and Formal Notification of the AGM
– Our request for the Board to introduce a Directors Register of Interests.
In the last 2 weeks we have published our assessment of the Board’s Submission to the ACMA as well as a members’ look at how well our WIA has been performing (“What have the Romans done for us?” ).

Your feedback and commentary of these documents has been both positive and helpful.

This Board continues to lose your money and there is no plan to turn the tide.

If you are a WIA member, do you wonder where your $95 goes each year? We have done an analysis, and will send you the report over the weekend and post it on our web site.

As many are aware, on the 7th May we launched a survey to investigate what you think about the licence structure here in Australia. Well over 400 of you have responded so far; an outstanding result. We will release the results next week.

Word about the WIA Reform Group continues to spread. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action. Email us if you have questions or concerns.

The communication and transparency of this Board has become worse. There have been no Board Notes or updates to the President’s Blog on the WIA web site this year. Why is that?

We need your support to make our Board listen. It’s our WIA and all the trends (number of amateurs, finances, privileges) are in decline.

The AGM is just 2 weeks away and still members have not received formal notification of Business to be Conducted, nor the Annual Report; where are the Financial Reports?

This Board has had 4.5 months to close the books and write the reports. What are they hiding? Send an email to the President and Secretary asking for the Annual Report.

We have also looked at the question raised by WIA President, Phil Wait when he asked “What have the Romans done for us?” Only we looked at it from the members’ perspective with the facts to hand. If you haven’t read it yet follow this link.

As a member you should be concerned about the lack of visible progress by your WIA.

On the 7th May we launched a survey to investigate what you think about the licence structure here in Australia. We’ve been overwhelmed with responses. Over 300 of you have responded so far; a fantastic result. If you have not yet completed the survey please do so; and forward the link to your club and friends. Your thoughts count.

If you are a WIA member, do you wonder where your $95 goes each year? Do you feel you’re getting value for money? We’ve done the sums and will release a short summary in the next couple of days.

Word about the WIA Reform Group is spreading. We are very pleased with the feedback and support we’ve been receiving. Please continue to spread the word. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action.

We felt this would be a positive step towards avoiding future conflicts of interest. We have written to the President, Phil Wait asking for confirmation that the proposal was considered and implemented. To date, we have not received a response.

We are also in the final stages of analysing the Board’s Submission to the ACMA, which was presented to the ACMA on 12th April 2016. We are concerned with some of the content in the Submission, not the least being a lack of consultation with WIA Members, let alone the broader Australian amateur radio community. Is this another example of a Board that does that not listen to, or consult with its own members? Our analysis will be released in the coming week.

We hope to see the 2016 Annual Report and Financial Statements in the coming week, but President Phil Wait has indicated in the April edition of Amateur Radio magazine that the audit review is still underway. We will be reviewing these documents closely and we encourage you to do the same.

We continue to campaign to make every Australian Radio Amateur aware of the issues and asking them to get involved. As we have said, it’s a big job and not something the three of us can do alone.

Please spread the word. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action.

Firstly, we sent a letter to the board of the WIA asking them to introduce a Register of Interests for all board members. We sincerely hope that the board will take our request seriously and implement this important process. With what we saw in the second half of 2015, it’s clear that the elected members of this board need some process control and clear guidance when it comes to identifying and managing conflicts of interest. There is more detail about this matter on our web site.

We have also placed a copy of the letter on the web site if you’d like to read it. Just follow this link:

Secondly, we have launched a survey which has been designed to capture the views of all Australian Amateurs. The survey focuses on two main areas of concern.

The member services provided by the WIA and National Office

Representation and Governance as provided by the board.

We respectfully ask all Amateurs to take some time to read the questions, answer the survey and consider the issues being raised. If you are uncertain about any of the issues raised, please visit our website and read the information before you complete the survey. You can complete the survey by following this link:

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Make your voice heard!

We hope to see the 2016 Annual Report and Financial Statements in the coming week. We will be reviewing these documents closely and we encourage you to do the same.

We continue to campaign to make every Australian Radio Amateur aware of the issues and asking them to get involved. As we have said, it’s a big job and not something the three of us can do alone. Please spread the word. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action.

We have been encouraged by the number of you who have contacted us sharing your concerns and supporting our efforts.

It’s been an important week with the elections results in. Congratulation to Andrew Smith VK6AS, Paul Simmonds VK5PAS and Phil Wait VK2ASD. At least we have some opportunity for positive influence with the new board. But more work is required.

As advised last week, we have sent further letters to the editor of Amateur Radio magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine editor decided not to publish our letters. But you can read them on our website.

We won’t repeat the content here other than to say the Board’s responses to Chris Chapman’s letter in the April edition of Amateur Radio magazine were severely lacking. Read the letters on our website and contact the office or the Board if you too want proper answers.

We hope that those of you who are members of affiliated clubs were not too inconvenienced by the appallingly inadequate manner in which the Public Liability Insurance renewals were handled. We were able to get an alert notification and advice to the clubs on Monday. Hopefully the issues have been resolved and the Board and National Office will not allow a repeat of this debacle next year. Some very simple project planning and communication from the National Office would have gone a long way to averting the problem.

On a more positive note we’re also reviewing a number of opportunities to put proposals forward to improve our WIA. Some of these proposals will address service related issues (like contacting the office and getting a response in a consistent manner) through to significant cost saving opportunities.

The next major milestone will be the release of the 2016 Annual Report and Financial Statements. They need to be released to members within about two weeks. We will be reviewing these documents closely and we encourage you to do the same.

We continue to campaign to make every Australian Radio Amateur aware of the issues and asking them to get involved.

As we said last week, it’s a big job and not something the three of us can do alone. Please spread the word. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action.

Thank you for contacting us to share your concerns. Chris Chapman, Rowan Dollar, Glenn Dunstan and others have all attempted to drive change with the Board of the WIA either from within, or by way of direct correspondence.

These efforts have been unsuccessful. Hence the WIA Reform Group was formed in March 2016.

Your emails and messages resonate very strongly with our core values and objectives: those being to create an effective, efficient and member focused WIA.

You told us some concerns we were already aware of, but we have also learnt of other equally valid concerns. Areas like:

Concerns over the education and training delivered by WIA approved programs

Communication and action in support of the smaller states

Acknowledgement and responses to individual concerns from members

Issues with ACMA and how it’s officers interact with the Australian amateur community

Genuine concerns over elected board members conduct and behaviour

And of course many responses have been from non-WIA members, whose concerns are equally as valid and valued.

Where to from here you ask? The WIA Reform Group is not going away. We have written to the WIA Board asking for their direct and immediate action over recent issues of inappropriate board conduct, conflict of interest, incompetent service delivery, poor financial decision making, communication failures and various other failings. We have sent further letters to the Editor of Amateur Radio magazine which we hope will be published. (edit – they were refused publication…)

As the results of the Ballot are posted and the Annual Report is published later this month we will be ready to raise further issues and will be preparing for the 2016 AGM on Norfolk Island.

In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated with a brief weekly email.

We are campaigning to make every Australian Radio Amateur aware of the issues and asking them to get involved. It’s a big job and not something the three of us can do alone. Please spread the word. Forward this email to your local club and friends. Contact the National Office and Board Members calling for positive action.

Many of you have remarked that we need to make more specific proposals for removal of the Board and overhaul of the WIA. To that end, we are developing a plan for the future of a new, member-focussed and transparent WIA.

This is detailed on our recently modified website home page at www.wiarg.org . Unlike the Board, we listen to feedback….

We welcome your thoughts, experiences and ideas for the future.

Until next week,

C. Dunstan VK4DU, C. Chapman VK3QB, R. Dollar VK8RD.

We don’t want to spam you. Send us an email if you’d prefer we remove you from our mailing list.